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APPENDIX D
BASIC LITERACY PROGRAM
Potentially one of the most dramatic features of the Delta Ministry
is a functional reading ability training program. The technique needs
only simple materials, students, and helpers v'ho can. read, who do not
necessarily have special teaching skills and who come from the same milieu
as the students. Basic to the program is stimulation of the student-helper
relationship and the learning process developing with specific purpose,
such as a job opening.
Student and helper have a loose-leaf book. On a page is a picture, for
example, of a man and beneath, the word "man." The system assumes that the
student already has a certain verbal ability and that he will recognize
the picture. To make sure that the student responds to the written word as
well as to the picture, he is required to underline the word. The following
page is the answer page; on it, there are the picture and the word, and the
vrord is underscored.
With the development of the response to words, and to sounds, the
system progresses to phrases—"the big man'j to simple sentences—"the
man is big," with accompanying pictures.
Dr. John W. Blyth of the Diebold Group, Inc., a New York data processing
research organization, is the developer of the plan. Formerly professor of
philosophy and dean at Hamilton College for 26 years, he first began work in
program instruction in 1956. Robert Moses, a philosophy major at Hamilton,
who later became a leader of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, asked
Dr. Blyth to develop a literacy program for the work thsre. Dr. Blyth, a
Haverford College alumnus, joined Diebold in 1962. An anonymous donor has
funded the development of the system through a grant to Tougaloo College,
near Jackson.
The system has been tested in Harlem and in Philadelphia, Pa. Its
simplicity, designed for use by anybody in any environment as long as there
is one person who can read, and its minimal aim at a working vocabulary
recommend the program to U.S. government officials as a tool which could be
widely used.

Although this folder contains a printed copy of Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"; a summary of a June 1964 orientation conference by the Student Interracial Ministry, along with a list of attendees; and an issue of a newsletter put out by the Southern Student Organizing Committee, the bulk of the folder consists of Delta Ministry materials. A Delta Ministry fact sheet includes its history as well as biographical sketches of some of its members, a list of members of the Commission on the Delta Ministry, a description of its activities in Mississippi, demographic background on its sites in Hattiesburg, McComb, and Greenville, and a blank form for applying to work with the Dela Ministry. Delta Ministry documents called "Some Dynamics in Mississippi Today" and "Mississippi: Two Worlds" offer succinct descriptions of conditions in Mississippi in 1964. Arthur C. Thomas, the founder of Delta Ministry, writes about the church's role in civil rights. Decisions from the Delta Ministry's general board meeting that established a program for Mississippi on February 26, 1964, are here as well, along with more demographic information about conditions in the Delta region itself. In addition, there's also a SCEF pamphlet called "Faith South" which details that organization's history, philosophy, and work, and a 1965 issue of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations' newsletter, "The Interpreter."

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.

APPENDIX D
BASIC LITERACY PROGRAM
Potentially one of the most dramatic features of the Delta Ministry
is a functional reading ability training program. The technique needs
only simple materials, students, and helpers v'ho can. read, who do not
necessarily have special teaching skills and who come from the same milieu
as the students. Basic to the program is stimulation of the student-helper
relationship and the learning process developing with specific purpose,
such as a job opening.
Student and helper have a loose-leaf book. On a page is a picture, for
example, of a man and beneath, the word "man." The system assumes that the
student already has a certain verbal ability and that he will recognize
the picture. To make sure that the student responds to the written word as
well as to the picture, he is required to underline the word. The following
page is the answer page; on it, there are the picture and the word, and the
vrord is underscored.
With the development of the response to words, and to sounds, the
system progresses to phrases—"the big man'j to simple sentences—"the
man is big" with accompanying pictures.
Dr. John W. Blyth of the Diebold Group, Inc., a New York data processing
research organization, is the developer of the plan. Formerly professor of
philosophy and dean at Hamilton College for 26 years, he first began work in
program instruction in 1956. Robert Moses, a philosophy major at Hamilton,
who later became a leader of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, asked
Dr. Blyth to develop a literacy program for the work thsre. Dr. Blyth, a
Haverford College alumnus, joined Diebold in 1962. An anonymous donor has
funded the development of the system through a grant to Tougaloo College,
near Jackson.
The system has been tested in Harlem and in Philadelphia, Pa. Its
simplicity, designed for use by anybody in any environment as long as there
is one person who can read, and its minimal aim at a working vocabulary
recommend the program to U.S. government officials as a tool which could be
widely used.

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.